Raleigh students need your vote to build bus tracking app

A group of Raleigh middle schoolers needs your votes to have MIT program their app -- an app that would help all Wake County School students and parents track their bus.

Michelle Bass teaches tech design class at Hilburn Academy and she likes her students to put their skills to the test -- it's why they entered the Verizon Innovative Learning app challenge.

"They had to think of a community problem and buses, and bus timing, completely came to mind, and so they took that app and they just ran with it," Bass said.

Their app won "Best in State," a $5,000 prize for the school and new tablets for the students on the team.

"It's awesome; they blew me away," Bass said.

Text "TRACKRZ" to 22333 to vote for the Hilburn Academy students.

Now they're going for the "Fan Favorite" award to have their app built by MIT.

"Sometimes we have substitutes and they don't know where the bus is going -- we have to wait longer. Or it's raining, and you don't really want to be stuck out in the cold," said Anna Socha, a student on the team.

"It's also handy for parents in case they have to leave work instead of leaving their kids at the bus stops," said Amaya Montague, who's also on the team.

"Every bus in the county is required to have a GPS, so if there's a way we can get into the GPS and have it on the app, it'll track the bus," student Ben Klenke said.

The students need to have more votes than any other team by February 14. You can vote for them by texting the name of their app,"TRACKRZ," to 22333.